


Of dreams, hopes and beginnings

by kaisophelia



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: ATEEZ Storyline Event, Friendship, Longing, Lost Memories, OT8, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:41:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25201846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaisophelia/pseuds/kaisophelia
Summary: Everything changed, in the blink of an eye. The adventurers they were once, now long one; replaced instead by their old selves, back to a past where they didn't belong any longer.Because memories vanish but feelings remain. And perhaps this is life giving them a second chance to start their journey once again.[This is my first written and published story in a long while. I did it for the Ateez Storyline Contest and since it already ended, I thought I would share it here too so anyone can read it if they wish to. Criticism is welcomed and I would love to hear what you think of the story I wrote so please don't be shy to leave your opinion in the comments!]
Kudos: 1





	Of dreams, hopes and beginnings

Part I. Introduction

**_“Can you see the changes?”_ **

An illusion. That is what everything seemed to be in the end. One second they were touching the treasure, finally finding it after a long journey, and the next one it seemed as if everything was fading away. It was like waking up from an intense dream, one that they could vividly remember nonetheless. Because it was hard to believe that it didn’t happen, that they didn’t sail together for over a year pursuing their goals and dreams. It all had felt so real, the treasure within their reach and filling their hearts with joy and excitement, after all the hardships they encountered during their adventure. They had battled their enemies, defeated their own fears and travelled to unthinkable lengths just to reach their final destination. They left behind a world of chaos, convinced that they should be redeemed for it because, as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.

So how could they accept the fact that it had been nothing but a dream? It just didn’t seem possible, it couldn’t end so abruptly just when all that glory was right at their fingertips, their name about to become a legend. But fate seemed to strike once again, sending them back to the start as if it was a punishment for something they did wrong. Maybe they were too ambitious, became too greedy through their journey and they were now being held accountable for their evil doings. Maybe they had to do things once again, start a different adventure to undo what had been wrongly done. Perhaps that was why they went back to the beginning, back to **zero**.

* * *

Part II. Prologue

**_“Through the roaring winds continue to blow, it will not stop us”_ **

_Everyone left, but only her scent remains. No name or address to be known. As if I was dreaming within my own dream, it all faded away._

**_Seonghwa_** could taste the sea in the roof of his mouth and across his lips, vibrant in the tip of his tongue. He could still feel its scent around him as if he had bathed in its wild waters just minutes ago and the salt remained stuck to his skin. But the more he wanted and tried to remember, the more his head began to hurt. Every memory he had seemed to be fading away, vanishing before his eyes and even if he attempted and struggled to grasp and hold onto them, they slipped through his fingers like the fine sand in an hourglass. Even the faces of those that joined him in what he now really thought of as a dream were blurred, making it hard to recognize who was there, who followed him. And he would have given up if not for the silver bracelet that he now held tightly in his hand. It didn’t belong to him, that much he was sure of, yet it seemed familiar, as if he had seen it before. There was a distinct laughter ringing in his ears now, a vision making its way before his eyes and the sight of a hand holding his own, the bracelet dangling from a stranger’s wrist. Seonghwa was convinced then, it couldn’t just be a dream. And he needed to find answers, he needed to find who the bracelet belonged to. He needed to find them again.

_It started with you but it’s also my dream now. But without my brother, there’s no meaning to this dream. What am I supposed to do if you disappear?_

**_Yunho_** did remember their journey, or at least parts of it. He was able to remember their time together, the battles they fought and the fond memories they made and shared all along. He could even put a name to each one of the boys he had met through that adventure. All except one. There was one face that he could not see clearly, unlike the others. One face that was nothing but a blur, almost like a glitch. The sight in itself was scary, an unsettling feeling heavy on his chest. Something was off, it was wrong and he needed, desperately so, to find out what it was. Pulling out his phone, Yunho was determined to call his friend, his brother, and share his worries with him, only to find out that his number no longer existed. Even his pictures were blurred, like the face in his memories. Without wasting a second or thinking it twice, he started running through crowded streets and calling out a name that sounded foreign, unfamiliar, even if he had shouted it out countless times before. His friend couldn’t disappear, his own brother, the reason why he fought along in the first place. Without him, everything was meaningless. Dreaming and hoping were meaningless if he had no one to share those hopes and dreams with, if he didn’t have him.

_Adults said. Look up at the stars in the night sky. But, the stars did not shine in the night sky that I was looking at and I continued to walk looking down on the ground._

– The creative adult is the child who survived–. **_Yeosang_** always heard people telling him that and somehow he found it easy to believe. Did he consider himself a survivor? Maybe he did, once, but he was losing hope in it with each day that went by. People would definitely say that his dreams were vivid and creative if they heard about them – pirates, flying ships and dreamy islands that seemed to come out of a movie, almost as if he was on a one-way trip to Neverland. But in those dreams there were also battles, the sound of rustling chains and the drums and trumpets of war echoing in the distance, and he was trapped, locked inside what seemed to be a glass box while masked people passed by, hiding underneath fedora hats. They weren’t always beautiful but they were his dreams nonetheless, stories that felt too real to be ignored. Stories that adults would not understand, just how they didn’t understand that there were no stars in the night sky he looked at. There was nothing shining, no hope left for him, no start to wish upon. He had given up on those hopes and dreams long ago, sure that they were not made for him. Because adults would tell you to look at the shining stars but then stop you if you look for too long, if you dream of reaching for them. Maybe adults were simply not allowed to dream.

_San is sick of his life. When the moving car stopped for a moment, he jumped out of the car._

**_San_** was exhausted of living up to everyone’s expectations, of being someone that he didn’t want to be. He had spent all of his life pleasing everyone by hiding his weaknesses and only showing his strengths. He would hide away his pain and put on his brightest smile, he would be there to listen to everyone’s struggles even if they would never listen to his own. He had grown used to it, to always keep a smile that made his face hurt at the end of the day, to always be there for everyone yet have no one there for him. He was tired of living a life that didn’t seem to belong to him, that he had no control over. He wanted to dream big, to be free, so he took the chance once it appeared in front of him, running away from the car and the life that had been nothing but a golden cage for him. Fate had great and big adventures waiting for him and San knew it, he knew he was capable of doing amazing things if only he was allowed to and now there was no one to stop him, no one to pull him back. Now he could finally be himself, he could finally follow those dreams. He could finally look for his own treasure.

_Living without dreaming is a normal thing for a guy like me. Dreams are too lavish to the poor._

**_Mingi_** had never hoped for anything big, he didn’t have inspiring dreams to pursue or fight for. He didn’t feel like he could have them, after all, because the harsh truth was that he would never be able to achieve them anyway. Dreams were made for people with the possibility to fight for them, to dedicate their life to work for their goals and have no other worries in mind, and that was not his case. He had way too many things in his life to worry about, many troubles to care for, to allow himself to be deluded with the existence of a utopia where everything was possible, where there was a treasure hidden in every corner and life was peaceful and joyful. Sadly, things didn’t work that way and he had to grow accustomed to it, living by the rules that real life imposed instead of the ones that he sometimes had wished for. Because he did have dreams once, big ones at that, but that seemed now too far gone in the past, something that he should have forgotten by now. Because dreams were only allowed to happen at night, and in the night they should remain.

_I gave up on the easy way out to be with my friends. But we’re wrong. I’m only going to think about one thing now._

**_Wooyoung_** looked at himself in the mirror, seeing the same reflection that he had seen before. Nothing had changed, or so it seemed, despite how real his dream had felt, and that was relieving. He liked to believe that everyone had their own fate, their own path to walk on life, and that it couldn’t be changed, but maybe this dream was a sign that things should be different. He had been following his friends blindly his whole life, even if it meant getting himself in trouble more often than not. But they were his friends, his family, and you were supposed to support your family no matter what, right? But what to do if you know that they are wrong? How to keep following them? How to go against them? He felt like he was in a road with no way out, like no matter what he did, there wasn’t a right choice to make. He could follow his friends like he had been doing until then, and just ignore his own feelings. Or he could go against them and thus cause them to push him away. As much as the second option hurt, though, he felt that it was time for him to be selfish, to think about himself and what he wanted and needed. To focus on his goal, no matter what it took for him to achieve it.

_I was too young to know how to reach out to my lost friend. Where am I now? Where should I go?_

The feeling of losing a friend was something that **_Jongho_** was familiar with. He couldn’t even remember how it happened, or when, just that one day they were gone and he couldn’t find them again. It felt like losing part of yourself, your better half, and there was no way of moving forward. It was as if he was still stuck in that same moment, a never-ending cycle that repeated itself day after day. He didn’t know how to move on from the loss, how to grieve and mourn over it without an explanation of why it happened. He found that there was no purpose, nothing to guide him anymore. He was alone, with nowhere to go and many questions that still needed an answer. He had been too young back then, too young to understand, too young to try and help. But he wasn’t that kid anymore, he had grown up since then and the thought of his lost friend was still present in his mind, blaming himself for not doing more back then. For not doing more now that he could. If only he knew where to start looking, how to do so. If only someone was willing to give him the push that he needed in the right direction.

_The man with the fedora said, “there are countless dimensions in the world.” When I opened my eyes, it was a dream. Next to me was an hourglass I saw for the first time, and the sand in the hourglass began to flow back from bottom to top._

There was that dream again. I had been dreaming with this man for countless nights now, always the same vision. He would stand there, dressed in black with his face covered by a mask and a fedora hat on top of his head. The chains hanging from his neck were shining despite the darkness around him and his eyes… those eyes are an image I won’t easily forget. Each night it felt like he was reading through me as if I was an open book and he could unveil my most ambitioned dream, the hidden desire that burnt in my heart and yearned for something greater. And, honestly, the scariest part was that the man wouldn’t say a word. Even if I asked, even if I screamed at him to speak, he always remained silent. So when I finally heard his voice after meeting him in my dreams for so many nights, I didn’t know if I should be relieved or scared. It sounded distorted, probably because of the mask, yet it was clear enough to send shivers down my spine and for his words to ring in my ears, clear as spring waters. Countless dimensions in the world.

I barely had time to process what he had tried to say, what his words meant, when I was forced to wake up by the bright light besides me. At first I thought someone had walked in, or that maybe my phone’s screen was reflecting in the darkness of the room, but I was certainly not prepared to the sight of the hourglass sitting on top of the table, right before me. It was shining in a blueish and greenish light, as if there was an aurora inside of it, the northern lights moving across the walls in a wave motion. However, the most surprising thing was when the sand began to move against the flow of gravity, from the bottom of the hourglass back to the top. I reached for it, more curious than scared, and held the hourglass in my hands, looking closely at the way each grain of sand seemed to fly. It was as if all the answers I needed were hidden inside, like a wakeup call that I had been waiting to receive for ages. I knew what I had to do now. And I needed to hurry.

* * *

Part III. The beginning

**_“We are the history and we will be the one”_ **

_It’s not the reality that makes you lose your dream; it is your decision._

**_Hongjoong_** looked at himself in the mirror, not seeing his own reflection anymore. Instead, the one staring at him was the man with the fedora hat, the one that had been visiting him in his dreams. It was his fate to become him, and it was his duty to carry on with the mission before the sand in the hourglass finished moving. He had to recruit the seven boys with lost hopes and broken dreams. He had to convince them with promises of greatness and success, had to bring them along on a journey that he didn’t know where would take them.

He visited each one of them – Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho. He promised them freedom, adventures and recognition. He painted them a wonderland where everything was possible, a place where they could find what they wished the most: a lost friend or brother, a new life, a dream to pursue… He would become their leader, their captain, guiding them on to achieve that they yearned and longed for. It might not only be gold or fame, but something that moved their hearts and united them as one.

Only with the seven of them he could carry on his mission, his duty, once the hourglass stopped, taking them back in time, or maybe to another dimension like the man in his dream had mentioned. Whatever it was, Hongjoong knew that they could make it, together, because they as eight made one team, and they would be unstoppable, full of _passion_ , _youth_ and the ardent _fever_ that came along with the feeling of finally having a purpose, something worth fighting for.


End file.
